DONE AND DONE!  

I have never been more happy and excited to finish something in my life!  Student teaching wasn’t as bad as it could have been (and I know from experience it can be really bad), but I have never worked so hard with out getting paid.  Not only did I not get paid, but I had to pay to do it.  Wow I’m glad its over!  I have one more class that will be finished January 30^th and then I can apply for my teaching credential! I could be a teacher, in my own classroom, CRAZY.  Too bad most districts are having hiring freezes, or worse laying-off a bunch of teachers.  I’ve applied to be a sub, and to teach at charters schools, but I'm still waiting for a response.  In the mean time I have NO IDEA what to do with myself.  Mind you today is my first day off, and it’s a holiday so I wouldn’t be working any way… 

I went down to a Buddhist   Temple last week and took an employment test to work as a census taker.  I’ll hear back from them the end of next month, but that is only a few months of work.  Then what?  Anyone out there have connections at an elementary school that is actually hiring?  

In other news it's my birthday on Friday and I have decided I really do not want to be 25!  So go ahead and get me stuff, you may even make me a cake, but lets just say I'm turning 24 again. K? Thanks! 

Let me tell you all about this book I read for an amazing book club I am in.  My friend brought it to me at 6:30 on a Tuesday night.  At about 7pm I turned off the TV and began reading.  I knew I couldn’t stay up that late because I had to be at school early the next day.  I thought I would read until about 10 and then call it a night… Well at around 3:00 am Aaron finally made me go to bed. I’m pretty sure I would have stayed up until 5 am and finished it if it wasn’t for Aaron.  I brought the book to school with me the next day and read it at every opportunity.  By 1:00 in the afternoon I was done.  This wonderful, life-consuming book is THE HUNGER GAMES. 

I knew there was another book in the series, but I decided to be responsible and wait until Friday after school to pick up a copy… That lasted until Aaron got home from work Tuesday night and I made him download a PDF of CATCHING FIRE. 

I took my time with that one.  I was in bed by midnight even.  In the morning I emailed myself the PDF and read it off my iPhone every chance I got all day Thursday.  When I got home from school I read and by 7:30 I was done. 

So If you are looking for a good book to read I would strongly recommend this one! Really, you should read it.  It's so good!

Disclaimers: 

*The third book does not come out until September 24^th 2010, if you start reading now, be prepared to wait.

**Begin reading at your own risk.  I am not responsible for neglected husbands, children or home cleanliness.

I love Christmas time, but I am a firm believer that it does not begin until December! I refuse to decorate, or even listen to Christmas music until December 1st. Despite my firm stance I found myself preparing for Christmas in September... Oh well.

My sister-in-law Courtney is very crafty and is always making cute stuff.  She invited me over to make a Halloween countdown thing, which turned into making a Halloween count down and a Christmas countdown... This is what I created.



I was then somehow convinced it would be easy to make Stockings for Aaron and I.  I cut out the material and did some of the sewing, but if it wasn't for Courtney they would not resemble stockings AT ALL!





I also made a really cute tree skirt, but seeing as how I do not have a Christmas Tree this year its already packed away.


When Courtney and I were shopping for fabric I found some that I had to have, even though I didn't know what to do with it at the time.  Courtney suggested I make to pajama pants... so I did.  Here is the fabric...



and here I am rocking my HUGE home made pants.



I love them!  And I'm sure I will wear them all year long, even though they are Christmas-y...


MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Even though I was working full time over the summer, I still feel like I had a summer vacation.  Now that I've been student teaching for 3 whole weeks I am miss all the fun things I did like....

Going to Dodger games with Aaron and sitting in the left field pavilion aka "Mannywood"
With some of our tax returns we decided to get a mini game package for the Dodgers.  On game nights I would take the train out to LA and Aaron would pick me up at Union Station.  We successfully NEVER paid for parking!  After Friday night games there was always a firework show and we got to sit in the outfield to watch.

        

Rachel put this on our desktop with terrible intentions.  I don't have too many ambitions for being a parent.  I just want my kids to be able to win in a fight by knocking someone out, be familiar with the rules of all the major sports, & have the skill of picking their burgers in public with no one noticing... and that's why Rachel's raising them.

27 years ago today....

  
... Aaron came into the world!

Happy Birthday!

In 1990 Voyager 1 took this photo nearly four billion miles away from earth.  I can't help but look at it and have an overwhelming feeling of the insignificance of not only my problems, but myself.  

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds...    

-Carl Sagan

Faith is something that's incredibly personal, but at the same time incredibly confusing.  I have a hard time explaining it to people I trust, because it doesn't make any sense to much of myself.  In fact, it's almost embarrassing and ridiculous.  Half of me talks to my hands at night while I'm on my knees.  Half of me feels comfort and love from something far greater than empirical explanation.  There's a constant struggle between the admittedly sparse, yet indelible, spiritual moments which provided greater clarity to my life than anything else I've experienced and the grey matter in between in which I'm left to my senses to make it through this place.  I have a feeling navigating this unfortunate balance is what life is about. That, and finding the perfect pizza.

Aaron and I spent the first week of June In Corolla, North Carolina with Aaron's parents, sister, brother and their families.  

4 years ago today Aaron and I were sealed in the Los Angles temple for time and all eternity.  Best day ever!